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After watching health care reform fall apart, it is encouraging to see a bipartisan group of federal lawmakers joining forces to rewrite No Child Left Behind, the 2002 federal education law that jolted states into focusing on student achievement.
The ambitious measure is far from perfect, and there is certainly room for improvement. We have criticized it on several counts, including its harsh punishment of struggling schools that are making progress, yet still not measuring up.
However, we hope that those involved in the NCLB overhaul push back against the powerful interests, such as teachers unions and states, that may try to take advantage of the overhaul to weaken some of the better parts of the law.
Lawmakers must make certain schools remain accountable for student achievement, and ensure that it's a priority to have quality teachers in every classroom. Great teachers are the most important factor in improving student achievement, along with interested parents.
Those parts of NCLB must be retained, strengthened and backstopped with other metrics. President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have emphasized the need to tie progress in student achievement to a teacher's evaluation, and we couldn't agree more. The development of these types of measures is part of the administration's Race to the Top grant program, in which states are competing for hundreds of millions of dollars in grants.
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